A Siren's Song
by BlakM
Summary: I melted into the dream as if I had always been there. I knew where I had come from; I knew where I was going. Inspired by Silver Queen's "Dreaming of Sunshine." An SIfic.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: Hello, hello! Holy crap I can't believe I'm back xD I've been on a forever hiatus, but decided to pick writing back up again. And I know I suuuuck with finishing fics, but this is one that I really can't wait to get into! I was inspired by Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen, which if you haven't read that yet, then I highly suggest that you do. It's amazing. This is going to be a SIfic, and while it will start off following the Naruto-verse, at some point it's going to begin to delve off a little and the butterfly affect will start to show its ugly head.**

 **Also, as for any romance in this fic, I don't have any planned out and probably won't for a while, but feel free to give suggestions along the way if you want any kind of pairing. Obviously it won't be Naruto, seeing as how Hinata is in love with him. So don't suggest him.**

 **Anyway, tell me whatcha think?**

* * *

 ** _Prologue_**

Death.

It should have been dark, or maybe it should have just been an endless tunnel of white. However, that was not the case for me. I mean, it was dark for some time. And warm. It was like being wrapped up in a heated blanket and shoved into a room clouded over in darkness.

I wasn't afraid.

Death was supposed to be the end-all-be-all of things. Sure, there were religions that believed in life after death, whether it be in another world or in some far off kingdom in the sky. I'd had hope in the end that I would have been able to reunite with all of the family and friends that I had lost in my lifetime. However, that was not meant to be.

This was my story of life after death. Reincarnation if that is what you may have preferred to call it. And no, I hadn't been reborn as an ant or a tree or a single blade of grass. Nothing so simple. Instead, I found myself in a world that I never would have believed to actually exist. A world created from someone's imagination.

You would think that in being reborn, all of the memories that you had accumulated in your past life would cease to exist. The did not. Instead, they stayed in the back of my mind, reminding me of all of the things that I had lost. My death had not been very significant. To be honest, if you were to ask me right now what had happened, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you. I had lived a simple, boring life. I had no real great accomplishments except maybe getting my college degree in psychology, but that had been it. I hadn't been married, didn't have very many close friends, and all-in-all I didn't think very many people missed me. My family, yeah, but I imagine that they'd had their period of grieving until I disappeared from their constant thoughts, becoming only a faint memory of someone that was once there.

Perhaps getting a second chance to live was a blessing. Or maybe a curse. I didn't know, but I would make the most of what I had been given.

They say that you aren't supposed to remember being born, that you couldn't retain any memories from before you were around two years old. For some reason, however, I had been acutely aware from being born with the same adult mental capacity that I had died with. And let me tell you, being born wasn't very fun.

I had felt itchy all over, probably from the fact that my chakra coils were starting to form. It wasn't a strong sensation and I only really noticed it if I thought about it. I could feel my chakra pathway system beginning to develop. It was like another set of veins almost. Chakra is circulated throughout the body through these pathways and interacts with every living cell and organ. Along the chakra pathways, there are 361 nodes called tenketsu that control the flow of chakra like circuit breakers, and within those tenketsu are Eight Gates which control body function and strain levels. If your chakra was developed enough for you to be able to draw on it, it gave the user superhuman abilities.

But I was getting ahead of myself here.

I had been born as Akino Hyuga at 8:35 pm on December 27 to Kikyo and Hiashi Hyuga, younger twin sister to Hinata Hyuga by only one minute and thirty-five seconds. I know that didn't seem long, but it had been enough time to determine me as not eligible to become the next Hyuga heir. Which, to be honest, I never would have wanted in the first place. To be born a Hyuga meant that I had to live by their barbaric ways. I had watched _Naruto_ in my previous life and never got around to finishing it, but I knew enough to despise the way that my clan was run.

It was dark, being born. I mean sure, some light filtered in through my closed eyelids but not enough to _see_. And the _noise_. I couldn't fully hear and all of the sounds around me were muffled- barely there and just out of reach. It was cold and I could barely move my limbs on my own. They would twitch, but without having full motor skills I couldn't control what I did. And I was helpless. I was _afraid_.

Later when I looked back on life I should have apologized to my parents at some point, because I was a loud baby. It was terrifying to be so acutely aware of your own subconscious, but not your surroundings. I remembered warmth, and the safe feeling of being cradled in my mother's arms. And I remembered the muffled cries of my twin sister, who had been the complete opposite of me. While I was a loud baby, she was quiet. Hinata was a good from the very beginning.

I didn't know who or where I was until I developed the ability to see. The first thing that I ever laid eyes on had been my mother. She was beautiful and gentle and everything that I wished to be. Her long brown hair had been pulled back into a low ponytail, the end of it draping across her shoulder to end at her hip. Gentle lavender eyes framed by long eyelashes greeted me. I had been a little freaked out at first, seeing as how her eyes were _pupiless_ , but it was something that I had gotten used to over time.

My father was the opposite of my mother, just like Hinata and I were. Where she was soft and comforting, he was sharp and strong. Hiashi Hyuga was a very strict man, wanting only the best for his clan. He wasn't emotionless and hard as some described him as, however. What he did, he did for the betterment of his clan. He cared, in his own way, and even had a few soft spots here and there. It was just getting to them that was the hard part.

My and Hinata's birth was a mix of both celebration and a little disappointment. Father had wanted a son to be the heir to the Hyuga clan, but had gotten two girls instead. I knew what Hinata had to go through to try and earn both that title and our father's praise. I also knew about Neji.

The Hyuga clan was split into two branches: the main house and the branch house. Those born into the branch house were branded with a cursed seal that, in lack of better terms, enslaved them to the main house. It was created to protect the secrets of the Byakugan, the Hyuga clan's dōjutsu kekkei genkai, and allowed the main branch to control them with a mere hand seal. Neji Hyuga had been born to Hizashi Hyuga and therefore put into the branch house. It had caused him a lot of turmoil throughout his life and I felt deep pity for him. Not that I would tell him that though.

Being born into the Naruto-verse had been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because I now had the power to try and stop all of the bad things and the deaths that happened in the storyline. However, it was also a curse because it wasn't just a story anymore; it was real. The dangers were real, the possibility of death was real. Which is why I had vowed to myself to try and change the events that I knew were coming in a few year's time. But it wouldn't be that easy.

My name was Akino Hyuga, and this was my story.


	2. Chapter One: Blurred Lines

**I'm not really a fan of this one *sweatdrops* but tell me what you think!**

 ** _Chapter 1:_** **Blurred Lines**

Growing up as a Hyuga was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I could get all of the training that I could possibly need. See, being apart of a clan meant that both before and during training at the Academy, we would also get clan training. Which is when we would learn how to use clan jutsu like the Byakugan. However on the other hand, the branch system that made up our clan infuriated me. The fact that just by being born onto the wrong side would brand you as a slave for the rest of your life. It had always puzzled me though, that even though I had been born second I was still in the main branch of the clan. Since both my father and his twin brother Hizashi had been separated. Hizashi had been put into the branch house and my father in the main. I suppose it could have been easily explained, but I never asked.

Being from the main branch and also daughter to the leader of the clan, a lot of things were expected from me. From a young age I'd had to learn basics of formal Japanese etiquette, from how to sit in the perfect seiza to how to perform a tea ceremony. Luckily though, Hinata was the heir to the clan and not me, because at least I didn't have to learn all of the boring clan etiquette in as much detail as she had.

And while Hinata and I were twins, we looked nothing alike. Sure, we both shared the same dark hair color and pupiless lavender eyes and fair skin, but that was it for similarities. She had the same soft, round nose as our mother while I had the high arching brow of our father. Her hair was short while mine was long. Hinata was gentle, and kind, and selfless. Whereas I was tough and adventurous and had a tongue that was not quite attached to my brain. Though we were different, she was my best friend and most trusted confidant, and I would never let anything bad happen to her.

I'd been only a week old when I first met my cousin, Neji. He was only a year older than both Hinata and I, so the meeting hadn't been that thrilling. And to be honest I had been so young that my body couldn't process a whole lot that had been going on. However, as we grew up and Hinata and I turned one and Neji turned two, a friendship began to bloom. He had been gentle back then. And kind. The first time I could fully process everything, I remembered that I had crawled right up to him and babbled some horribly butchered version of his name.

"Neeej!" My tiny body attempted to climb up onto the great mountain that was my uncle as I tried to reach Neji. He had been perched on his father's lap, short dark hair growing long enough to barely touch the bottoms of his ears. His lavender eyes blinked at me and he reached his chubby fingers down and grasped onto my shirt. However, the small amount of strength that he'd had in his two year old body hadn't been enough to save me from my failed attempts. Hizashi reached down and gently lifted me up and put him on the other side of his lap.

"Ji!" I screamed, arms flailing out until I caught until Neji's sleeve. I grinned a toothless grin and then proceeded to drool all over him. Hinata had been sitting across the low table in our mother's lap asleep, her gentle breathing barely penetrating the air.

When we were two and he was three, I began following him everywhere. Wherever one was found, the other couldn't be that far behind. Hinata had been very shy, and while she also loved her cousin and tagged along frequently, she hadn't been around him nearly as much as I had.

Which was why I'd dreaded the day that my third birthday arrived. It had been a huge celebration, almost all of the main branch had been there except for the ones that had been on missions. Hinata and I were dressed up in matching pink kimonos. Her short hair, so dark that it almost looked blue, had been adorned with a cute sparkling clip. Whereas my shoulder length hair had been braided back into a neat plait with white flowers weaved in.

A three year old's birthday party was definitely about as fun as it sounded. I mean sure, there was cake and a mountain of presents and plenty of other Hyuga kids to play with, but a three year old could only do so much. It had taken me a little while to realize it, what turning three years old meant, and once I did I started crying. Right in the middle of the party. My mother figured that I was just tired or grumpy and pulled me away to put me down for a nap. That hadn't been the case however. Oh no. See, turning three meant that Neji got branded with the Caged Bird Curse Seal. I had wished, oh man had I wished, that I could have tried to somehow stop it, but some things really were meant to be fate.

And shortly after that, uncle Hizashi died.

I would never forget the night that Hinata had been taken. It was the night of our third birthday and she and I had been asleep in our room, me on one side and her on the other. Normally we would sleep together on the same futon, but tonight had been an exception. It had been hot and the air was so sticky that I couldn't even sleep with a blanket on.

It had been very late in the night, or early in the morning maybe. I'd always been a light sleeper, even from before the reincarnation, and the fact that it had been so hot that night hadn't helped very much. I had just fallen into a light sleep when I sensed someone in the room. No, I wasn't a chakra sensor or anything like that, it was more like how you could tell when someone was staring at you without actually seeing them. It was a strong presence and not friendly.

My eyes shot open and I jerked awake, the small blanket that I had been able to fall asleep with pooling around my bare legs. The only light in the room was the soft moonlight gently cascading in through the now open window. I could barely make out the figure that was standing in the middle of the room. They were tall and wearing what looked to be a flak jacket and long pants: a shinobi.

He paused for a brief second, just standing there, and then silently made his way over to Hinata, his sandals making no sound against the wood flooring. My eyes widened as he reached out to her and I bolted upright out of my futon, trying not to trip over the blanket tangled in my legs. He didn't appear to notice me and so I launched myself across the room and started to beat the intruder in his back with my tiny fists.

"Leave. Her. Alone!" My efforts were wasted and a cry escaped my lips when he turned, striking an arm out so fast that I didn't even have time to react. I flew back towards my futon and my back slammed into the fall so hard that I bounced off of it before landing awkwardly sprawled out on the floor below me. My world spun for a few moments as I fought to stay conscious, my three year old body not used to taking that kind of pain.

The man was a blur of black as he lifted Hinata, carrying her like she was a limp doll. She didn't move. Then he leaped back out the window and into the darkness. I tried to blink the blurriness out of my vision and hobbled to my feet, panic taking over my body. I had known that this was going to happen, I just didn't know that it would have been so soon. Stumbling slightly, I achingly made my way through the shoji doors leading to my room and out into the hallway. Running my hand along the wall to guide me, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to my parent's room. The door slammed open and I frantically called out for my father.

"Father! Father!" His figure rose from where he had been sleeping, my mother stirring awake beside him.

"Akino-"

"Someone took Hinata!" I interrupted. If it had been any other time and I had interrupted him like that, he would have probably murdered me on the spot. But instead, his Byakugan activated in the flickering darkness and I saw him disappear from the spot he had just been standing in without hesitation. I could only hope that he could get to her in time, but I knew that he was strong and would never let someone kidnap his daughter.

"Akino?" I had almost forgotten that my mother was there. She softly padded her way over to me. "What's going on?"

I explained and she kept her composure so well that I didn't even see a flicker of emotion pass on her face. Instead, she gently ushered me back out down the hallway and into the sitting room. She ushered me to sit at the low table and I complied, folding my legs under me in an Indian style. I had been too worried to even think about being polite. Mother calmly went off to go make tea and I stared forward out the wall of windows and out into the darkness, hoping for a sign of my father or Hinata. My mother returned, setting down two cups of steaming tea onto the table, one for me and one for her, before sitting down herself.

"Don't worry," she assured me, hands coming around the teacup but making no movement to bring it to her lips. "Your father is very capable of taking care of this situation."

I didn't respond, choosing instead to bring the cup of steaming tea to my lips and taking a sip. It burnt my tongue but I didn't care.

Father returned only fifteen minutes later with Hinata tucked gently into his arms. Her head was lazily flopped sideways onto his chest, breathing even, but her eyes remained closed. She had looked so small and frail then and I leapt to my feet.

"Father-" I began only to be cut off,

"Hinata is fine," Father assured me. He turned towards mother and their eyes met in silent conversation before he looked back to me. "Go back to sleep."

I tried to protest, but he silenced me with one look and I grudgingly made my way back to my room. He followed and put Hinata back onto her futon, her body still limp.

"Why won't she wake up?" I asked, worry creeping up my throat.

"She was drugged," he responded, turning on his heel as started to make his way out of the room. "But just with something to make her sleep. She'll be awake soon."

The doors slid shut behind him and I paused before crawling over to my sister. I curled up next to her and grabbed her small warm hand in mine. She was going to be okay and I could finally breathe again. I didn't sleep for a while, instead staying up to stare out the once open window. If I strained my ears hard enough I could just make out the sounds of father and mother speaking in low voices in the other room. And then another added to it; it was a low grumble and distinctly male. There was arguing, that much I could tell, but I didn't know why. I sighed and rolled over so that my head was tucked into Hinata's shoulder and closed my eyes, slowly drifting off to the sounds of wind beating against the window.

Next week uncle Hizashi died.

From what I had been able to gather from listening in on adult conversations and from my own understanding of the anime, the head of Kumogakure had come to Konoha on false pretenses. Konoha and Kumo had been at war, and so the head of Kumo had offered to sign a peace treaty. However, that had not been his intentions at all. He attempted to kidnap Hinata in order to try and steal the secrets of the Byakugan. Luckily for us though, and unfortunate for him, our father had stopped him so fast that he hadn't even made it outside of the Hyuga compound.

Father killed him, and Kumogakure wanted penance. They had denied any and all ties with the kidnapping and instead demanded my father's life to make up for the one that he had stolen. That was where my uncle Hizashi had stepped in. While they disagreed a lot and my uncle always resented my father for putting the Caged Bird Curse Seal on Neji, he persuaded both my father and the third Hokage to let him go in my father's place.

See, since uncle had the seal as well, the secrets of the Byakugan would be sealed upon his death, making it impossible for Kumogakure to obtain it. So he sacrificed himself for both his clan and his brother. Father never grieved in public, always keeping his stern composure. But I knew that he missed his brother dearly from the way that whenever someone mentioned his name, his back would get a little straighter and his head would be held a little higher.

Hizashi's death affected not just my father, but Neji as well. And he would never be the same again.


End file.
